Lift up process

ABSTRACT

A lift-up process for constructing a tall tubular structure comprising providing a plurality of unit structures which, when combined together, form the tubular structure, engaging a first level unit structure with a plurality of guide rods at the same level, each of the guide rods having shoulders formed at an interval corresponding to the stroke of a piston of an incremental oil pressure jack, incrementally raising said unit structure by an oil pressure jack on each guide rod, placing a second level unit structure just below the first level unit structure and welding the first and second level unit structures together, and repeating the above steps to place and weld successive level unit structures.

United States Patent [151 3,673,754

Murashige et al. [45] J ly 4, 1972 541 LIFT UP PROCESS 2,605,540 8/1952 Kroll et al. ..52/122 [72] Inventors: Hidekichi Murashige, lchikawa', Masao gs g a Simakura Tokyo Kazuo Nakazawa Y k h n 3,347,522 10/1967 Re|nmann.. ....254/l05 3,538,653 11/1970 Meckler ..S2/l67 [73] Assignee: Kawatetsu Kizai Kogyo Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 3,464,169 9/1969 Potain ..52/l26 Ja an p Primary Examiner-Frank L. Abbott Flledi J y 14, 1970 Assistant Examiner.lames L. RidgilLJr. 1 No: Attorney-Fidelman, Wolffe & Leitner [57] ABSTRACT [30] Foreign Apphcatmn Pnomy Data A lift-up process for constructing a tall tubular structure com- July 18, 1969 Japan ..44/S7184 prising providing a plurality of unit structures which, when March 13, 1970 Japan .A5/21706 combined together, form the tubular Structure, g g g a first level unit structure with a plurality of guide rods at the 521 US. Cl .52/747, 254/105 same level, each of the guide rods having shoulders formed at 51 I Cl I 04 21 24 04 12 3 an interval corresponding to the stroke of a piston of an incre- [58] Field of Search ..52/745,747,122,126,741, mental Pressurejack, incrementally raising Said unit struc- 52/123 254/105, 106, o 107 ture by an oil pressure jack on each guide rod, placing a second level unit structure just below the first level unit struc- [56] References Cited ture and welding the first and second level unit structures together, and repeating the above steps to place and weld suc- UNITED STATES PATENTS cessive level unit structures. 1,066,436 7/ l 913 Peltzer ..52/745 6 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures SHEET 10F 4 PATENTEDJUL 4 I972 illm- IFiq. 33

LIFT UP PROCESS This invention relates to a lift-up process for heavy articles, and particularly to an improvement of lift-up process suitable for constructing a long and considerably big-sized tubular structure such as a chimney made from steel.

Heretofore, it has been a customary practice in the construction of a long tubular structure such asa steel chimney to first construct a tall, strong turret for use as a support for a crane, and to pile up tubular units of the tubular structure one on the other sequentially from the bottom, and repeat the above step using the previously constructed units as a foothold.

With such prior art process and apparatus, much cost, labor and time are required to construct the turret and the operation of joint and assembly of the tubular units (such as welding operation) must necessarily be carried out at high place. For this reason, there exist much risk in those who engage in such work and the work becomes difiicult, this requiring longer work period.

In the light of those defects in the prior art process, this invention is directed to overcome the above difficulties.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to lift up a first unit structure by an oil-pressure jack keeping same level and without slip along a plurality of guide rods having shoulders formed at the space corresponding to a stroke of a piston of the stepping oil pressure jack, carry a second unit structure into a space just below the first unit structure, which space is at a level relatively near the ground level, in order to carry out welding or other operation to joint them together without danger, then lift the assembly up to carry a third unit structure into the space just below the lifted assembly, which space is near the ground level, in order to weld together the third unit structure, and repeat these steps until desired tubular construction is constructed.

In such a case, where a tubular structure to be constructed is long and considerably heavy, it should not be supported at one supporting point but supported at a plurality of support points where oil pressure jacks are arranged. With such arrangement, however, it may occur that a load imposed to one support point so ertceeds that the oil pressure jack at that point is subjected to an overload.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to divide the guide rods at the same support point in longitudinal direction to provide a desired number of guide rod extending along a common line, and arrange an oil pressure jack for each of the guide rods to share the load for facilitating lift-up operation.

It is another object of the present invention, in connection with the above case, to divide the guide rods at the same support point laterally (perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the rods) to provide a desired number of rods and arrange an oil pressure jack for each of the rods to enable the desired lift-up operation.

Even when distributed support for the load is given by providing oil pressure jacks on the guide rods provided at each of several supporting points without supporting the heavy article by a single guide rod provided at a single supporting point, it may occur that a partial load is imposed on a guide rod at a particular supporting point.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to connect the upper ends of the guide rods to the oil damper pistons carried on the supporting structure of the turret so that the rods depend therefrom, and, when a partial load is imposed on a particular guide rod and hence on the corresponding oil pressure jacks, to automatically compensate it to allow balanced load to be constantly imposed on the oil pressure jacks of the guide rods.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a desired number of guide rods by longitudinally dividing the guide rods to be mounted at the same supporting point or by laterally (i.e. perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the rod) dividing them and, even when the load is shared by providing the oil pressure jacks on the guide rods, to avoid partial load being imposed on a particular one of the oil pressure jacks which belong to the same support system by connecting the upper ends of the guide rods to the oil pressure damper pistons carried on the supporting structure of the turret so that the rods depend therefrom for alloying balanced load to be constantly imposed on the guide rods and hence on the oil pressure jacks provided at the rods.

The features, other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawings; in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing in detail the structure of a stepping oil pressure jack suitable for use in the lift-up process of this invention;

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C illustrates a process of this invention in which a long tubular structure such as a chimney is constructed using considerably heavy and big-sized unit structures, with hang on guide rod having oil pressure jack as shown in FIG. 1 attached thereto;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are enlarged illustrations of X and Y portion in FIG. 2A, respectively;

FIG. 5 illustrates the lift-up process wherein the guide rods are longitudinally divided in accordance with one aspect of this invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates the lift-up process wherein the guide rods are laterally divided in accordance with another aspect of this invention; and

FIG. 7 shows an oil pressure damper adapted to be used in the process of this invention and the oil pressure pipe arrangement.

Now, referring to FIG. 1, it illustrates an oil pressure jack device for lift-up operation adapted to be used in the process of this invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 designates a piston rod of cylindrical structure, 2 designates a piston provided at the top of the piston rod 1, 3 designates a cylinder body, 3a being an upper oil pressure chamber and 3b being a lower oil pressure chamber, 4 is a piston rod guide of cylindrical structure inserted in the cylindrical piston rod 1, the piston rod guide 4 being slideably fitted in an inner periphery of the piston rod 1, and the top end of the guide being integrally fixed to the top end of the cylinder body 3. Thus, when the piston rod 1 moves up and down the inner periphery thereof will not be brought into direct contact with periphery of a guide rod 13 having a stop shoulder 14 on the periphery, as will be described later.

Integrally mounted at lower end of the piston rod 1 is a lower clamp holder 5 with its inner periphery formed with a downwardly stretching inclined surface 5a.

Fitted into the lower clamp holder 5 is a clamp 6 comprising a plurality of, preferably three or more, segments and having a truncated conical profile with a center opening. Annular seat 7 is positively mounted on the lower inner periphery of the lower clamp holder 5, and a coiled spring 8 normally adapted to expand is interposed between the clamp 6 and the annular seat 7.

On the upper side of the cylinder body 3 an upper clamp holder of the same shape or substantially same shape as that of the lower clamp holder 5 is integrally mounted. In the upper clamp holder 9 a clamp 10 which is similar to the clamp 6 is mounted and a coiled spring 12 which is normally adapted to expand is interposed between an annular seat 11 which is tightly fitted into the lower inner periphery of the upper clamp holder 9 and the clamp 10.

The lower clamp holder 5 and the piston rod 1 are detachably coupled to each other by suitable means such as bolt, and the upper clamp holder 9 andthe cylinder body 3 are also detachably coupled to each other by suitable means such as bolt. Further, the lower clamp holder 5 and the annular seat 7 fitted to the lower section thereof, and the upper clamp holder 9 and the annular seat 11 fitted to the lower section thereof are, respectively, coupled to each other by suitable means such as bolts.

Also, 13 designates a guide rod mounted in the piston rod guide 4. On the outer periphery of the guide rod 13 there are provided a plurality of stop shoulders 14 spaced from each other by a distance which is shorter than the stroke of the piston rod 1 (the stroke of the cylinder body 3) by 10 25 percent. The stop shoulders 14 are adapted to engage the clamps 6 and 10, respectively.

The unit structures for a tower-like construction such as a chimney or the like are mounted to the lower holder 5 or the cylinder body 3 with appropriate arms or brackets, not shown.

The operation of the lift-up oil pressure jack device will now be described.

With the clamp 6 in the lower clamp holder 5 and the clamp in the upper clamp holder 9 being engaged with the stop shoulder 14 of the guide rod 13 as illustrated, oil pressure is applied throughan oil pressure pump, not shown, to the upper oil pressure chamber 3a of the cylinder body 3. Then since the clamp 6 in the lower clamp holder 5 integrally mounted to the lower end of the piston rod 1 has been engaged with the stop shoulder 14 of the guide rod 13, the cylinder 3 is moved upwardly by a predetermined stroke by reaction.

Upon the upward movement of the cylinder 3 the upper clamp holder 9 mounted on the upper surface of the cylinder 3 is also moved upwardly.

As the upper clamp holder 9 moves up, the inclined surface 9a thereof is moved parallelly (as illustrated by a dot and dash .line), during which a clearance g sufficient to cause outward movement of the clamp 10 is formed between the inclined surface 9a of the upper clamp holder 9 and the clamp 10. Thus, the clamp 10 is forced upwardly by the action of the coiled spring 12 nonnally adapted to expand between the annular seat 11 and the clamp 10, and it is moved toward the inclined surface 90 of the upper clamp holder 9 which has been moved parallely, and moved up along the guide rod 13 as the clamp holder 9 is moved up, and finally engages with ,the sto shoulder. located one step above the guide rod 13.

Then, the oil pressure within the upper oil pressure chamber 3a of the cylinder body 3 is exhausted and oil pressure is applied to the lower oil pressure chamber 3b of the cylinder body 3. Since the cylinder body 3 is not moved because the upper clamp 10 is engaged with the stop shoulder 14 of the guide rod 13, the piston rod 1 is moved up by a predetermined stroke by reaction, and thus the lower clamp holder 5 connected to the lower end of the piston rod 1 is moved up, and the lower clamp 6 therein is engaged with the stop shoulder 14 located one step. above the guide rod 13, as in the case of the upper clamp 10.

By repeating the above operation, the oil pressure jack A can be moved up step by step along the guide rod 13.

In constructing the guide rod 13, the upper clamp holder 9 (including the upper clamp 10), the cylinder body 3 (including the piston rod 1) and the lower clamp holder 5 (including the lower clamp 6) are respectively assembled onto the guide rod 13. For the removal of the oil pressure jack A from the guide rod 13, the upper clamp holder 9, the cylinder body 3 and the lower clamp holder 5 may be withdrawn in this order from the upper end of the guide rod 13.

As is clear from the above description, according to the oil pressure jack A of this invention, the oil pressure jack can always be positively clamped to the guide rod without slip in the lift-up operation of heavy structure such as slabs of building or construction including unit structures for chimney or other tower-like construction. Furthermore, since each incremental movement along the guide rod is always kept constant in the distance of increment, it becomes possible to carry out the liftup operation smoothly maintaining a desired level.

The process of this invention is directed to construct a tubular structure such as a steel chimney or steel tank, using the lift-up oil pressure jack as described above. One embodiment of the process of this invention, in accordance with the claim 1 will now be described in connection with FIGS. 2A-2C.

In FIGS. 2A-2C, 15 designates a turret, 16 is a support structure located at a suitable level in the turret, 17 is a first level (uppermost) unit structure of a chimney body, 18 is a second unit structure, and so on, and 27 is a 11 th unit structure, 34 is a 18 th (lowermost) unit structure (19-26 and 28-33 representing intermediate structures). Also, 13 designates guide rods having shoulders 14 on their periphery, which shoulder are spaced by a distance somewhat shorter (e.g. 10 25 percent shorter) than the stroke of the piston rod of the oil pressure jack A, as explained in connection with FIG. 1. Appropriate number of said guide rods (e.g. three guide rods) have their upper ends suspended from and supported by support structure 16 angularly spaced with each other of angular space for three guides). Encircled portion X in FIG. 2A is shown in FIG. 3 with enlarged scale, in which upper end 36 of the guide rod 13 is fixed to and suspended from the support structure 16 by receiving steel member 35 having U-shaped cross section, washer 50 and lock nut 37.

At the encircled portion Y, of FIG. 2A i.e. the lower end of the guide rod 13, as shown in FIG. 4 with enlarged scale, the

first level unit structure 17 is attached to an oil pressure jack A by bracket 38, bolts 39, bracket 51 attached to jack A, and upper and lower nuts and lock nuts 52 and 53 respectively.

After lifting up the uppermost unit structure 17 to a required level by the oil pressure jack A, the second level unit structure 18 is carried to contact just below the lifted uppermost unit structure 17 and welded together with the uppermost unit structure 17 using base 54 in the space relatively near the ground level. Then, the assembly is further lifted up and these steps are repeated to weld together the subsequent unit structures 19, 20, 34, or the last desired unit, in sequence to finally construct desired tower-like structure.

FIG. 5 shows the present process in which the guide rods 13 are divided into two rods longitudinally. The support structures l6, 16 provided at two points of different level in the turret 15 are on the same vertical line. I

The oil pressure dampers 40 and 44 are of the same structure, the detailed structure thereof being shown in FIG. 7. They include cylinders 40a and 44a and pistons 40b and 44b, and the cylinders 40a and 44a are secured, for example, to the support structures 16, 16 of the turret l5,.respectively, and the upper ends of the guide rods 13, 13 are connected to and depend from the piston 40b and 44b, respectively of the oil pressure dampers, by means of nuts 55A and 558.

Oil pressure chambers 40c and 440 of the oil pressure dampers 40 and 44 communicate with manifolds 45a, 45b from a communication pipe 45. The communication pipe 45 has at its one end a stop valve 46 and at its other end a pressure gauge 48 through a gauge cock 47. The oil pressure from an oil pressure pump, not shown, is applied from one end of the communication pipe 45 through the manifolds 45a and 45b to the oil pressure chambers 40c and 440 during no-Ioad or {a statusin which the load by the unit structures is not imposed on the guide rods 13, for applying an appropriate value of oil pressure to the oil pressure dampers 40 and 44 while watching the oil pressure gauge 48, keeping the stop valve 46 and the gauge cock 47 in closed position.

In FIG. 5, the oil pressure jacks A, A provided on the upper and lower guide rods which belong to the same support system or which lie on the same vertical line, receive the oil pressure from the oil pressure pump, not shown, through any suitable control means and incremented together by the same increment along the upper and lower guide rods l3, 13.

The divided, uppermost unit structure 41 of a tall structure, such as a steel chimney, to be constructed, is first secured to the lift-up oil pressure jacks A of the guide rods 13 hanging from the lower portions of the turret 15. Then the oil pressure from the oil pressure pump, not shown, is applied to the oil pressure jack A through any suitable control means to increment the oil pressure jack A together by the same increment to hang up the uppermost unit structure 41 to a required level.

In this case, oil pressure is not applied to the lift-up oil pres- Then the second level unit structure 42 carried to contact just below the uppermost unit structure 41 which has been handed up is welded together to the uppermost unit structure 41 as a unit, and the assemble is hanged up to the upper limit position of the guide rods 13 in the lower position.

Then the supply of oil pressure to the oil pressure jacks A provided on the guide rods in the lower position is stopped, and the uppermost unit structure 41 of the hanged up assembly comprising the unit structures 41 and 42 is fixed to the oil pressure jacks A of the guide rods 13 which have been hanged up to the upper position by brackets 49. At the same time the oil pressure jacks A in the lower position are released from the uppermost unit structure 41 and the oil pressure jacks A in the lower position are lowered to the lower limit position of the guide rods 13 in the lower position.

Then, as in the previous case, the third level unit structure 43 carried to contact just below the second level unit structure 42 is welded together to the second level unit structure 42 and the oil pressure jacks A in the lower position are fixed to the unit structure 43.

The oil pressure is then supplied to the oil pressure jacks A in upper and lower positions, each oil pressure jack A being co-moved by the same increment. By repeating these steps a required number of unit structures 41, 42, 43 can be united sequentially.

As described above, while a tubular structure of heavy load may be constructed by sharing the load of a desired number of unit structures 41, 42, 43 to the guide rods 13, 13 in the upper and lower positions, there exists a possibility of partial load to one particular guide rods 13 and of producing unbalanced load to the guide rods 13 during lift-up work of the unit structures 41, 42, 43 due to difference in manufacturing tolerances of the lift mechanisms comprising the guide rods 13 and the oil pressure jacks A, the difference in installation conditions of the lift mechanisms, the difference in the elongation percentages of the guide rods 13, and the difference in the flexibilities of the turret 15 at the hang-up position for the guide rods 13 or other points. Such a partial load is undesirable from the point of the work. I

Assuming that a partial load is imposed on one guide rod in the upper position to increase a stress thereto and the oil pressure jacks associated with that guide rod are fallen by mm, then the increased oil pressure of the oil pressure damper which hangs up said guide rod is directed through manifold 45a, communicating pipe 45 to the oil pressure dampers which hang up the guide rods in the lower position, as shown in FIG. 7, thereby the guide rods in the lower position belonging to that support system are raised by the amount corresponding to the flow-in of the oil pressure.

Thus, the load imposed on the guide rods in the upper position automatically reduces and substantially uniform load distribution is obtained for the guide rods belonging to the same support system, in the upper and lower positions. Therefore, the unbalance in load distribution to the longitudinally divided guide rods is compensated.

The same automatic load distribution compensation can be done as well even when the guide rods belonging to the same support system are divided into a plurality of parallel rods as shown in FIG. 6. In this case the oil pressure dampers 40 and 44 arranged in close relation to each other on the support structure 16 are connected to their oil pressure chambers through the communicating pipe 45 and the manifold pipes 450 and 45b, in the same manner as described in connection with FIG. 5, and appropriate value of oil pressure is applied thereto during no load.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of constructing tubular structures from plural tubular units comprising providing at least one turret having a support at the top thereof, providing plural guides for said units attached to said support by a load compensating piston assembly, providing hydraulic jack assemblies attached to said guides by plural incremental shoulders on said guides and plural upper and lower clam s, said clamps being movable with respect to each other by c anglng the pressure in the cylinders of said jacks, attaching an upper unit to the jack assemblies while the unit is adjacent the lower point of the structure, raising the attached unit a distance sufi'icient to allow positioning a next unit below the upper unit by hydraulic pressure in the jack assemblies by activating said assemblies so that said upper clamp is raised to a subsequent shoulder, and then said lower clamp is raised an equal number of shoulders, positioning said next unit below said upper unit, attaching said next unit to said upper unit, and repeating the raising and attaching steps to attach subsequent units until the structure is complete, and removing said turrets, supports, guides and jack assemblies.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said load compensating piston assemblies are activated by means of a remote hydraulic pressure source to equalize the load on each of said guides and jack assemblies.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the distance between shoulders on said guides is from 75 to percent of the distance equal to the stroke of the piston in said jack assemblies.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein there are provided plural turrets and support assemblies, each of said support assemblies having plural guide means and plural jack assemblies, and being positioned in a vertical arrangement, the second and subsequent turrent-support-guide-jack assembly being utilized incrementally during structural construction steps.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said load compensating pistons are activated by means of a remote hydraulic pressure source to equalize the load on each of said guides and jack assemblies.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the distance between adjacent shoulders on said guides is from 75 to 100 percent of the distance constituting the stroke of the piston in said jack assemblies. 

1. A method of constructing tubular structures from plural tubular units comprising providing at least one turret having a support at the top thereof, providing plural guides for said units attached to said support by a load compensating piston assembly, providing hydraulic jack assemblies attached to said guides by plural incremental shoulders on said guides and plural upper and lower clamps, said clamps being movable with respect to each other by changing the pressure in the cylinders of said jacks, attaching an upper unit to the jack assemblies while the unit is adjacent the lower point of the structure, raising the attached unit a distance sufficient to allow positioning a next unit below the upper unit by hydraulic pressure in the jack assemblies by activating said assemblies so that said upper clamp is raised to a subsequent shoulder, and then said lower clamp is raised an equal number of shoulders, positioning said next unit below said upper unit, attaching said next unit to said upper unit, and repeating the raising and attaching steps to attach subsequent units until the structure is complete, and removing said turrets, supports, guides and jack assemblies.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said load compensating piston assemblies are activated by means of a remote hydraulic pressure source to equalize the load on each of said guides and jack assemblies.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the distance between shoulders on said guides is from 75 to 100 percent of the distance equal to the stroke of the piston in said jack assemblies.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein there are provided plural turrets and support assemblies, each of said support assemblies having plural guide means and plural jack assemblies, and being positioned in a vertical arrangement, the second and subSequent turrent-support-guide-jack assembly being utilized incrementally during structural construction steps.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein said load compensating pistons are activated by means of a remote hydraulic pressure source to equalize the load on each of said guides and jack assemblies.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the distance between adjacent shoulders on said guides is from 75 to 100 percent of the distance constituting the stroke of the piston in said jack assemblies. 